Spencer, Firtko Capture #SummitVB Weekly Awards
Spencer, Firtko Capture #SummitVB Weekly Awards
ELMHURST, Ill. – Fort Wayne's Emily Spencer was named The Summit League's Volleyball Offensive Player of the Week while South Dakota's Melissa Firtko earned Defensive Player of the Week honors for their performances Sept. 2-7.
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Emily Spencer, Fort Wayne
Sr. // OH // Jenison, Mich.
Spencer earns her eighth career Offensive Player of the Week award after leading Fort Wayne to a 2-1 record at the Flyer-Raider Invitational last week. The senior outside hitter had double-digit kills in all three matches to move into third place in league history with 1,603 career kills. She had 16 kills in the sweep of Cal State Bakersfield and followed that up with 15 kills and a .314 hitting clip in the loss to Eastern Kentucky. She added 10 kills in the sweep of Bowling Green on Saturday. She was second on her Mastodon team with three service aces. For the week, Spencer averaged 4.56 kills with a .232 hitting percentage to go along with her three aces and five assists (0.56 a/s).
Also nominated: Bailey Karst, Denver; Kelly Wachtel, IUPUI; Emily Minnick, North Dakota State; Michaela Schimmer, Omaha; Laura Milos, Oral Roberts; Melissa Firtko, South Dakota; Jordan Jackson, Western Illinois.
Previous honorees: Sept. 2 – Laura Milos, ORU.
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Melissa Firtko, South Dakota
Sr. // MB // Racine, Wis.
Firtko captures her second Defensive Player of the Week honor of her career after tying the South Dakota block record for a three set match in the win over Tulane. The senior middle blocker recorded seven total blocks in the sweep of the Green Wave at the UND Classic on Friday. She added 10 blocks in the five-set loss to host North Dakota and added 11 kills for the double-double. She had eight blocks and eight digs in the second match vs. UND on Saturday. For the week, Firtko had 25 total blocks (2.08 b/s) and 11 digs (0.92 d/s) and averaged 3.9 points per set for the Coyotes.
Also nominated: Erica Denney, Denver; Sarah Heckman, Fort Wayne; Beth Howard, IUPUI; Emily Milligan, North Dakota State; Kimberly Bailey, Omaha; Kylie Johnson, Oral Roberts; Molly Murphy, Western Illinois.
Previous honoree: Sept. 2 – Kate Acker, DU/Hailie Ripley, IPFW.
ABOUT THE SUMMIT LEAGUE
In its fourth decade of Division I athletics, The Summit League offers 19 championship sports and has a combined enrollment of over 120,000 at nine institutions, including four located in top 60 U.S. metro populations and two land-grant universities. Member institutions include: Denver (University of Denver), Fort Wayne (Indiana University-Purdue University-Fort Wayne), IUPUI (Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis), North Dakota State University, Omaha (University of Nebraska Omaha), Oral Roberts University, the University of South Dakota, South Dakota State University and Western Illinois University. Previously known as the Mid-Continent Conference, The Summit League rebranded in 2007 and has since produced eight NCAA Champions along with over 65 All-Americans, 60 Academic All-America selections and numerous former student-athletes competing at the highest professional level. For more information about the league and to "See The Summit", visit www.thesummitleague.org, follow on Twitter @thesummitleague, download The Summit League's Front Row app, and watch the weekly "Inside The Summit League" show at www.thesummitleague.org/itsl.
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